The ‘Re-Imagine Luthuli’ Collaborative Design Competition is an open call to imagine a more walkable and shared street on Luthuli Avenue in the heart of downtown Nairobi.

Organised by the i-CMiiST project team led by Placemakers, Stockholm Environment Institute, and the University of York, and supported by the Architectural Association of Kenya, the Kenya Institute of Planners, Nairobi City County and the Safer Nairobi Initiative, the competition is an idea-based contest to re-envision and re-engage Luthuli Avenue as great shared street – a placemaking effort to improve urban safety and security, air quality, health and wellbeing, road safety, and showcase the co-benefits of designing streets as public spaces.

60% of Nairobians make their daily trips on foot, 35% by matatus and 5% by private cars (Ministry of Roads – Republic of Kenya, 2010). This means that the city has a great cycling and walking potential, which if tapped into, can revolutionise mobility. In the same context however, there remains a disproportionate investment to ‘invite’ people to walk and cycle. Most roads in the city lack or have inadequate walking and cycling infrastructure. As such, walking and cycling remain mandatory acts, carried out of necessity, and often associated with poverty and low socio-economic status. Luthuli Avenue is a congested space, a polluted space, a contested space between pedestrians, matatus, trolley pushers and motorbike riders, and an unsafe space where one has to dodge matatus, motorbikes and muggers.

Eligibility:

The competition is open to undergraduate students and recent graduates (no more than 1 year) of any discipline of creative expression and to submissions from across Kenya. The organizers are looking for creative collectives to work at the interfaces between art and creative industries on one hand, and transport planning on the other to reimagine Luthuli Avenue.

Awards:

The winning team will be given a cash price of Ksh. 50,000 while the first runners up will receive Ksh. 20,000.

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FUNDED BY:

The I-CMiiST project is funded by the British Academy’s Cities & Infrastructure programme and explores whether more creative co-design methods can reveal alternative more inclusive streetscape options that facilitate safer urban mobility. It is collaboration between creative experts in the UK and East Africa with transport planners and policy makers.